richards

Apologies for all the notes, but there is a wealth of interesting detail which can only be seen at the Persistent URL link above using the Zoom function. The ghost lady on the chair moved twice during the presumably long exposure. The chair is also on the left and right. The clock on the wall says 11.40am, but no-one is around. Is the photo full of GHOSTS ? ! Notes about the official photographers and Ceylon Court might be of particular interest to the PhM (see history at Persistent URL).

Excellent shot...

Interesting observations beachcomberaustralia. Could the photo perhaps have been taken at 11:40 pm? I didn't see anything to indicate am or pm on the clock. Alternatively, perhaps a Sunday morning? Was the exhibition open on Sundays?

@ Don Shearman - I guessed it was AM from the amount of daylight coming in from the clerestory windows at top left. I have no idea (yet) whether the Exhibition was open on Sundays. The more I think about it, it does seem odd that none of these interior shots by the official photographers Richards & Co. have any people standing proudly by their products. Very formal, or slightly spooky!

Another odd thing - I can't see any evidence of gas or electric lighting. I know they used electric arc lamps for the first time in the race to build the Garden Palace. It looks as if daylight was the only source.

Samuel Richards, Boston-based distance swimmer. Won the Boston Light Swim in 1911 and 1912. In 1913, he swam from Charlestown Bridge to the Boston Light and back--a distance of about 24 miles. Thus the interest in his lung capacity! www.bostonlightswim.org/about_the_race.html

pennylrichardsca: Thank you for the information on the amazing Mr. Richards! We will add more about him to the record when we update. and Wystan: Thanks once again for the date info!

Added to the gallery, More Oddities From the Commons.

1st Lt. John Francisco Richards II (b. July 31, 1896 - d. September 26, 1918) See: KC pilot’s diary is a window on World War I air battle over France by Darryl W. Levings The Kansas City Star - Star Magazine February 6, 2016 Their machines were made of wood, wire and doped fabric, powered by appallingly unreliable engines. With no parachutes, the young pilots would debate philosophically whether it was better to jump from 2,000 feet or stay in their burning cockpits to the end. Among them was a son of Kansas City — 1st Lt. John Francisco Richards II — who, on the afternoon of Sept. 26, 1918, was at the stick of a patched-up, nose-heavy French Salmson 2A2 biplane. That was the opening day of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a battle that led to the Armistice 47 days later. The mission of Richards and his observer in the second seat was to spot German guns in the Varennes area and direct U.S. artillery fire on them. Richards and 2nd Lt. Austin Hanscom did not return to their muddy airdrome near Remicourt that day and were initally listed as missing. Crews searched hospitals and flew over the exploding forested terrain to find them, even dropping notes to the enemy inquiring about the fate of a friend called “Dickie.” It wasn’t clear until about a month later that Richards had stayed with his machine all the way down. “Most interesting, heroic and pathetic” had been the 22-year-old officer’s journal observation about the grave-strewn and shattered French countryside. The words fit his own story well. For much of his life, Richards kept this daily accounting. “Writing seems to have been one of his greatest pleasures, no matter what the conditions were as to time or place,” said his father, George Richards, in the foreword of “War Diary and Letters of John F. Richards,” published in 1925. Richards loved flying. “It is the most wonderful sensation and I can see that I shall never give it up. Sixty miles an hour up there is like about fifteen on the ground,” he exulted in a diary entry. Now, amid the 100th anniversary of the Great War, this young officer’s forgotten story reopens a window on the air war over France. Though it was a world away from the terrible trenches, death was just as imminent. To repeat all the entries would, well, take a book. This story picks among the pieces to put together a sense of this convivial and purposeful young man. . . . *** SEE COMPLETE STORY LINKED AT TITLE *** See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Francisco_Richards_II